Georgina Sutton
Author
Language
English
Description
Margery Allingham, already a successful crime writer, was living quietly in the Essex village of Tolleshunt D'Arcy ('Auburn') when the Second World War broke out. Her house became an Air Raid Wardens' post and a First Aid centre, and Allingham herself became responsible for 275 East London evacuees in a rural community of just over 600. Commissioned by American publishing friends to recount what life was like, she began The Oaken Heart in the autumn...
2) Hester
Author
Language
English
Description
Hester (1883) is a dramatic story of female power and family tensions within Victorian society. Using her own money, Catherine Vernon manages to save the family bank from collapse after her cousin John absconds with some of its money. As the matriarch of Redborough, Catherine is used to commanding authority, but this is challenged with the arrival of John's strong and capable teenage daughter, Hester. Ignorant of her father's conduct, Hester takes...
Author
Language
English
Description
Shocked and distressed by a male writer's vilification of women, Christine de Pizan has a powerful dreamlike vision in which she is visited by three personified Virtues: Reason, Rectitude and Justice. They tell her she has been chosen to write a book which will be like a city, housing virtuous women and protecting them from feminist attack. Heroines past and present form the foundations of this city — biblical and mythical heroines, ruling queens,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Sharply observant and wickedly funny, E.F. Benson's six 'Mapp and Lucia' novels satirize the upper-middle-class social climbers in 1920s and '30s rural England. Games of bridge and cups of tea fuel hilarious gossip and vindictive plots a-plenty. It is a masterfully sustained spotlight on the minutiae of village life — a clever and ultimately heart-warming series that seems tailor-made for audio. Volume 1 contains the first three books. Book One:...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Sharply observant and wickedly funny, E.F. Benson's six 'Mapp and Lucia' novels satirise the upper-middle-class social climbers in 1920s and '30s rural England. Games of bridge and cups of tea fuel hilarious gossip and vindictive plots a-plenty. It is a masterfully sustained spotlight on the minutiae of village life — a clever and ultimately heart-warming series that seems tailor-made for audio. Volume 2 contains the second three books.
Mapp and...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
No one could have been more surprised than our Provincial Lady to receive an invitation from her American agent to travel transatlantic and embark upon a programme of lectures and signings. She was particularly amazed because, having received an overture sometime before and feeling that she would rather stay in the English countryside, she requested that they meet quite a few 'requirements' before she would agree to go.
They met every stipulation....
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Lady B. stays to tea. (Mem.: Bread-and-butter too thick. Speak to Ethel.) We talk some more about bulbs, the Dutch School of Painting, our Vicar's wife, sciatica, and All Quiet on the Western Front. (Query: is it possible to cultivate the art of conversation when living in the country all the year round?)'
If the question suggests a qualified answer, there is no doubt that the art of diary writing is alive and well and very, very funny in Devonshire...
8) Fairy Tales
Author
Language
English
Description
George MacDonald, described by W.H. Auden as 'one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century', was valued in his own time as an original thinker and spiritual guide. Of all his writing it is the fairy tales that have retained their fascination, and this collection includes all 11 stories, including The Light Princess, The Golden Key and The Wise Woman.
The fairy tales feature the stock characters of traditional tales - fairies both good and...